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The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music, released in 1965 and based on the real story of the Austrian von Trapp family, became one of the highest-grossing films of all time at the point of its release, and its filming locations across Salzburg, Austria remain major tourist attractions built substantially around the film's continued popularity. Julie Andrews's performance as Maria, a postulant nun who becomes governess to a widowed naval officer's seven children, won her widespread acclaim, and the film's songs, including "Do-Re-Mi" and "Edelweiss," became some of the most widely recognized musical theater songs ever adapted for film. The film's backdrop, set against the rising threat of Nazi annexation of Austria in the years just before World War II, gave its otherwise lighthearted family musical narrative a serious historical weight, culminating in the von Trapp family's dramatic escape over the Alps to avoid Nazi conscription. Its enduring popularity, including annual televised broadcasts and sing-along theatrical screenings that continue decades after its original release, has made The Sound of Music one of the most continuously beloved and commercially successful movie musicals in film history.
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West Side Story
West Side Story, released in 1961, adapted the Broadway musical's reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into a story of rival New York City street gangs, and its filming took place on real Upper West Side blocks that were being demolished at the time to make way for the construction of Lincoln Center. The film's Jerome Robbins choreography, blending ballet technique with street-inspired movement, set new technical standards for film musical dance sequences, and Robbins's insistence on extensive rehearsal time and multiple takes reportedly contributed to significant production delays and budget overruns during filming. Its score, composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim in one of his earliest major professional credits, is widely regarded as one of the greatest musical theater scores ever written, blending Latin rhythms with more traditional Broadway orchestration to reflect the story's Puerto Rican and Anglo-American character conflict. The film won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Steven Spielberg's critically acclaimed 2021 remake introduced the story to a new generation of audiences, reflecting the original's lasting influence on how film musicals could address serious social themes like racial tension and urban gang violence within a musical theater format.
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